TEMPE, Arizona, August 26. THE Arizona State family passes along its thoughts and sympathy to the family and friends of former diving coach Ward O'Connell, who passed away Wednesday night.
O'Connell served as ASU's head diving coach from 1974-1997. Under the direction of O'Connell, 11 Sun Devils earned All-American honors for a total of 15 accolades. ASU diving accumulated 10 individual Pacific-10 Conference titles, three Western Athletic Conference champions and one Western Collegiate Athletic Association champion during O'Connell's 22 years as head coach. Over his career, O'Connell served as a collegiate diving coach for 31 years.
O'Connell's divers were a key factor towards the women's 1977 and 1978 AIAW National Championships. In 1994, O'Connell's coaching abilities were honored by the conference as he was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year. He was also a major playmaker in the construction of the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center and served as the pool director for several years. He was the longest tenured aquatics coach in Sun Devil history.
Not only was O'Connell respected in the collegiate diving scene but the international realm as well. A founding vice-president of the American Diving Coaches Association, O'Connell served as the United States coach at the Pan American Games in 1967, at an 18-team competition in the former Soviet Union and coached at the 1967 and 1987 World University Games. In 1987, he was named a recipient of the U.S. Diving Committee's Fred A. Cady Memorial Diving Coaches Perpetual Trophy, the highest award given to diving coaches in the U.S. He and his wife, Joel, also founded the Sun Devil Divers, a diving club team in the Valley.
"I am thankful for the building block Ward established with the facility and the reputation of success with ASU diving," said current diving coach Mark Bradshaw. "I know he had a great impact on all his athletes, a few have since become coaches because of the mark he left on them. It is a tough loss for the diving community and a sad day for all who knew him."
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August 27, 2009 Ward was the diving coach at ASU when I was the assistant coach for women's swimming there back in the mid-nineties. He befriended me during a very tough time in my life, for which I will be eternally grateful. He was kind, and funny, and compassionate, and friendly, and he told awesome discursive stories which wandered all over the place but rewarded the patient listener by always returning to the original point with a satisfying conclusion. He genuinely loved his wife Joel, and I had the fortune of sharing a table with them at a work event on the evening of their 35th wedding anniversary. (He loved to tell the story of how, when he was still diving himself, he got stuck looking out for an annoying young teammate for an entire two-day trip home from Nationals. The annoying teammate was Joel.) I loved spending time with Ward, and would frequently be tardy to appointments because listening to him was always more important.
Forgive me if any of this is inaccurate, but here are some additional details to the best of my memory. His business card said F. Ward O'Connell, and the F. stood for Francis, but he always went by Ward. I believe he was originally from Tallahassee, and he dove for the University of Miami. I also seem to recall a story of him being quite a good amateur boxer.
Ward might have been a great coach, but I know for sure he was also a great person. I enjoyed every minute I spent with him but wish there had been many more, and I pity anyone who never had the privilege of meeting him.
I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw his obituary. Without Ward, the world is a little dimmer and a lot less interesting. Requiescat in Pace. Submitted by: coachasher
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